This webzine is online since August 2010 and is completely dedicated to Electronic Music (EM) identified as the Berlin School style and its derived. You will find interviews but mostly reviews of ambient, sequenced and symphonic EM with a glimpse on other related genres. You have questions or want your music to be reviewed? Please read the 123 FAQ section attentively. Bear in mind the main purpose of this Blog. So welcome in and I hope it will guide you into the wonderful world of EM.

jeudi 31 juillet 2014

“40 of the Very Best Laid Back EM Themes is a real treasure chest which hide 40 jewels of the most versatile styles in modern EM”

(DDL 158:37 )*** Here is well more than 25 years than AD Music charms the ears and diversifies the styles with a ceaselessly increasing and faithful legion of fans. From David Wright to Acheloo, while passing by Code Indigo and Divine Matrix, the English label establishes itself like a pioneer in the rise of EM, both driving based sequences and relaxing, with artists from all around the world, adding so a sweet tribal touch to its already versatile catalog. To underline this major event in the development of EM, AD Music presents an impressive collection, available only in downloadable format, of more than 3 hours of music. “40 of the Very Best Laid Back EM Themes” is a real gold mine. A treasure chest which hide 40 cinematographic, ethnic, rhythmic or purely ethereal cosmic pieces of music. There are true values. Artists that we know very well and who need no more presentation. I think among others of the pioneers of the label; David Wright, Robert Fox and Code Indigo. There are also artists of this new generation that AD Music supports constantly. Jewels such as Divine Matrix, The PelsSyndicate, Dreamerproject, Dead Beat Project, Geigertek, Sylvain Carel and Claudio Merlini. There are also several artists who are totally unknown to me, while others begin their hatchings on the label. Thus this is the right time to discover all the depth of the English label. I quite loved "Atlantis" from Robert de Fresnes, a good down-tempo filled with percussions, as rolling as slamming, which are thundering in some beautiful, floating and dreamy orchestrations. A good kind of chill or rather a romantic down-tempo, quite as "Econ Theme" from Wim which really has a harmonious Vangelis depth. The variety of the genres makes doubtless the force, even if criticized rather inequitably, of the famous label. We cannot like the soft and poetic "Ocean of Light", from The Kobolt Project, which mixes deliciously a New Age approach in a yoke of tribal music. Idem for the beautiful orchestrations which feed the rather fluid and dreamy style of Bekki William. My finds? There are some very beautiful. I think among others at this "Watching Lava Plumes on Io" from Iotronica and its dreamy sequences which swirl in spiral in the shadows of an infectious guitar. I hear Klaus Hoffmann-Hoock. Yet, there is also this hybrid side of The Kobolt Project who rocks between a sweet down-tempo, a bit chill, and electronica. It worth the listening. "Radioscope" from Ash Prema plunges us in full territory of Tangerine Dream from the Jerome Froese years. I quite enjoyed this good e-rock. There are very sweet artists, kind of New Age bards like Paul Sills or Steve Orchard. Others are doing good techno and synth-pop, like Lord of the Ants and Witchcraft. In brief, a musical mosaic which explores all the styles of EM. The only absentee is the based sequences of the Berlin School style remodelled à la sauce Anglaise. There is indeed Callisto and David Wright or yet Code Indigo, but the selection of the tracks offers the most accessible, less adventurous side of those artists. But it's the main purpose of this compilation and the selectors aimed straight in the middle of it. “40 of the Very Best Laid Back EM Themes” intends to be a compilation where one discovers the artists of the label in the savours that we savour as much at the beach, in parties, alone or in car. This impressive collection offers just it needs to cheer up the senses and the ears, to make our legs dance and our dreams float, just while leaving this small something which will urge a greenhorn listener to dive into this universe and to stuff himself the paunch for the coming months.Sylvain Lupari (July 31st, 2014)

lundi 28 juillet 2014

“The Delicate Forever is among one of the best ambient works released so far and this since some years”

1 The Delicate Forever 24:422 Well Spring 13:353 Where the Mysteries Sleep 12:354 Perfect Sky 13:455 HearAfter 9:10Projekt | PRO305(CD 73:49) *****(Ambient EM)Behind each ambient work, to say the least for the greater part and made exclusion of the Immersion Series, of Steve Roach wander some ghost melodies. Kind of ear-worm which sneak up until our subconscious and which leaves an indelible track in the corridors of our harmonic dreams. And this “The Delicate Forever” is no exception! Weaved in a long soundtrack of 74 minutes which are knotted by tiny modulations in ambiences embroidered of delicate melodic subtleties, this last collection of Steve Roach's ethereal sonic poetry is inspired by the very soporific moods of the majestic Structures from Silence. In fact it is when Steve Roach has revisited this album in the frame of its 30th special birthday edition that the inspirations came to him. Inspirations which, as you will hear, float easily and haunt a very long structure that will become your most invaluable companion during your next excursions in your phases of meditation, contemplation and pre-sleep.And from the first synth waves, we are feeling wrapped by the magic of Roach. These layers float like waves with sweet sibylline perfumes in an amphibian sound environment. Fine drops of water are oozing from sonic walls and their movements of random falls draw fascinating fragments of melodies which remain suspended throughout the 25 minutes of the title-track. Plainly and without new developments, "The Delicate Forever" auscultates the emptiness by the means of our ears. This oblong introductory movement in this last reflection of Steve Roach about the silence is a magnetising ambient mosaic where the passivity finds its allies in the movement of its shadows which float like threatening modulations and draw spectral panoramas illuminated by these liquefied pearls of which the distant harmonies lead us towards the very beautiful "Well Spring". By far the most beautiful track of “The Delicate Forever”, "Well Spring" offers an attractive melody, with delicately shaded harmonies, of which the spirals turn and turn in a huge labyrinth filled of soporific aromas. This is the wall of the modulations with slow and dark loops which go up, go down and suck up the thick cloud of veiled shadows of which the cloudiness has structured the passivity of the title-track. Except that the harmonies, and its iridescent minimalist tune, are flooding the amphibological ambiences of this piece of music which appears among one of the most beautiful in Steve Roach's contemporary period. "Where the Mysteries Sleep" is not outdone! And as its naming indicates it, we are floating through the mysteries which inspire the phases of the sleep with others rangy layers of synth of which the slow embraces and pleasant body loves draw some threatening vampiric shadows. Some slow and sinuous ochred striations which decorate and haunt those soporific corridors, caressing in passing the singing of the parasitic cracklings, scratch the hypnagogic passivity of “The Delicate Forever” with subdued and delicate spectral chants. Less nightmarish, even a bit idyllic and angelic, "Perfect Sky" eradicates a little the threatening shadows which overfly the taciturn moods of “The Delicate Forever”. Melodic silvery filets assure the serenity. A little like fireflies which smell a relative freedom in a maze of dark walls, they court in a strange ballet where the wind blows through many passages to modulate in counterweight a darker melody. And quietly we navigate until the finale in "HearAfter" which glitters like a dawn crowned of white lines on dark blue background and where the shadows dissipate little by little while leaving the uncertainty to persist, a mystery as if to knowing what will follow after “The Delicate Forever”.Here is a link for a short video of Well Spring: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3Jz6R7UQFk&feature=youtu.beSylvain Lupari (July 28th, 2014)

samedi 26 juillet 2014

“Parsec is an album to possess for all those who feed of Klaus Schulze’s discography, from Cyborg to Mirage”

1 Urvent 8:462 L'au-revoir des Elements 11:493 Gienah 12:184 Andromede 20:205 Canopus 8:586 Alcyone 11:35PWM-Distrib(CD 73:52) ****½(Vintage ambient EM)The winds which roar and whistle are common. They fill intros and outros. When these winds get mixed into a magnetic storm and move in the form of reverberant torsades, we frown of enchantment. That begins pretty well. And then there is a synth pad which spreads a musicality of an old organ. Its sibylline veil sneaks throughout those howling winds. And the meeting make spurt some sequenced ions which skip and rush within the shade of the winds which drag their prismic dusts. And there, we dream. We dream of Schulze and of his magnetic Mirage. The winds make also born some discreet solos, more musical, whose singings are getting lost in a superb series of sequences which goes up and goes down in astral spirals by following the curves of the fine modulations which dress "Urvent" of a dramatic nobility. What a way of starting an album! What a way also to introduce us into the universe full of paradoxes and of sudden developments that is the one of “Parsec”. Paradoxes and sudden developments, because Kryfels explores every pattern of an EM out of the vintage years, splendidly sequenced as charmingly ambient and softly melodious as mysteriously nebulous. Kryfels is the last find of the French label Patch Work Music. And it is a whole find! Musician and photographer, Richard Raffaillac has as much the eye as fingers to weave moods that either shake the soul or torment it. “Parsec” is, to my knowledge, his first album. An album which caresses the old coat of arms from an experimental Berlin School of the analog years with some intense and poignant sibylline synth pads, as well as comfortable and intriguing sound waves embalmed by ether which ride rhythms as lazy as those sweet analog modulations which transported us in the country of this blue smoked of the 70's."L'au-revoir des Elements" exploits this somber dramatic side of "Urvent", a little as "Canopus" moreover, with organic pulsations which gurgle in a troop of winds to the abstruse aromas. The sweet modulations make all the charm. They crawl like souls on the back of the void, waltzing at times rather awkwardly with the dying winds and breezes of ether which blow the almost Mephistophelian vibes of a track of which one imagines easily going out of a cemetery on an evening of black moon. Ambient, very rich and especially very effective! With its clogs which click in winds and pound like a heart at rest, "Gienah" presents a figure of rhythm as abstract as static where the modulations of a discreet bass line are livelier than the pulsations of clogs. Tinted of its sibylline sonic lines, the synth fits closely to these wave motions and is whistling some dreamy cooings which eventually got lost in the shouts of agony of a sonic pattern slightly painted by the roarings of apocalyptic sirens. And if we thought of having been caught in the nets of the Schulzian reminiscences in "Urvent", we did not hear this long symphony of synth pads which float with aromas of ether that is "Andromede". We are in full Timewind period with these synth waves which drift such as a bank of astral mist in a cosmos stuffed by these intersidereal tones of the vintage years. It's hardly if they wave. And nevertheless the ambient rhythm feeds on these static impulses which propagate like eddies in a lake too small, while the musicality appears with underlying ambient hymns which float there and even hum some baroque airs. I found that long at the first listening. But once well settled between the shells of my earphones, I have totally succumbed to the dark charms of this vintage ambient symphony. After "Canopus" which, even if a little more ambient, plunges us into the moods of "Urvent", with a more dramatic but so dark side, "Alcyone" propose a more delirious approach with sequences which stamp, like steps lost, in synth solos of which the twists are getting constantly soaked by this psychedelic drizzle which feeds the ambiences of “Parsec”. A little more and one would believe to hear a music piece lost in the works of Klaus Schulze's Blackdance or Picture Music.To draw constantly a parallel between the pivotal ambient works of Klaus Schulzeand this first album of Kryfels is not a kind of denial to Richard Raffaillac. There are artists who imitate and others who want to exploit fully these analog ambiences that time stole from us in its crazy race to stop its dial. And it's exactly the case of “Parsec”. Kryfels submerges literally the listener in a sonic bath with the pleasant perfumes of the psychedelic vintage years but with a vision to build, and rhythms and moods, of the contemporary years. We feel the influence of the analog works (Richard Raffaillac has built brick by brick “Parsec” from totally analog equipments) in a contemporary vision which makes a wonderful link between two times. “Parsec” is an album to possess for all those who feed of Klaus Schulze's discography, from Cyborg to Mirage.Here is a link for a short video trailer of this album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6tTtsSy2oUSylvain Lupari (July 26th, 2014)

jeudi 24 juillet 2014

“The Stratomusica Suite is a long cosmic symphony where prog and cosmic music hold an impregnable sonic view on the imagination of a listener who floats in space”

1 The Stratomusica Suite 56:37(Music for the Balloon Mission to the Edge of Outer Space)a) Prologueb) Towards the Destinyc) Moments of Suspensiond) Suddenly Jet Streamede) At the Gates of Cosmic Mysteriesf) Epilogue (For all the Explorers)GeneratorPL | GEN CD 032(CD 56:37) ****(Cosmic Prog Rock)A grave note of piano comes crashing down, awakening riffs a laTake a Pebble from E.L.P. which are coloring the somber and disturbing annihilated ambiences of this prelude to this long piece of music that is “The Stratomusica Suite”. A sonic opus in 6 acts which depicts the atmospheres and the horizons of the Strota Musica mission (mission which consists, by means of cameras which float in the stratosphere, to present a view of the Earth as realistic and close as the human eye) “The Stratomusica Suite” is no more and or less a long cosmic symphony where the progressive and the electronic music unite moods and rhythms in a concept work with an impregnable sound view on the imagination of a listener who floats in space. And the references to the icons of the progressive music, in particular Pink Floyd and Hawkwind, abound on this first collaboration between Józef Skrzek, iconic figure of the Polish progressive music, and Przemyslaw Rudz, undisputed master of the Polish EM scene.Prologue plunges us into a dark universe where a fascinating sonic fauna, as much organic than aquatic, caresses the cosmos under the soft looks of a synthesizer and of its tearful veils. The tumult of the piano notes, as well as the crushing of its strings which sound like an out of tune Kyoto, wither little by little, letting hear organic breaths of which the groans in the shape of rattlers flee towards the depths of the cosmos and its slow morphic synth pads. The synths pour moanings and are cooing like stellar whales in drizzle a little more somber and in waves tinted of black. Blindly, the listener feels submerged by a weightlessness. While more and more dense, the lunar synth layers and the singings of the astral mammals float like sonic eels up to the deeper of the universes. And there it is, at around the 13th minute, that the synth waves darken and make the first rhythmic phase of “The Stratomusica Suite” hatch out. At the beginning, the rhythm is timid. Light, it jumps up freely on sequences with a slight funky tone and through the loops of a synth with a zest of psychedelic aromas. Percussions are boosting the movement which, if seems a little bit jerky, rolls with fluidity in the singings of superb synth solos filled by analog tints. This invigorating phase of rhythm borders the 10 minutes before that some other morphic moods seize again the long movement of “The Stratomusica Suite”. This time these ambiences are more celestial with synth pads and lines as well cosmic than organic before that a clearly more aggressive structure of rhythm, as a furious big progressive rock fed of heavy riffs and deafening synth layers, cuts out the astral sedation of the listener for a good 8 minutes perfumed of delicious solos of a jazzy genre. This is doubtless my best passage of “The Stratomusica Suite” which takes refuge for 3rd time in its very ethereal cosmic ambiences. We are in the 43 minutes and we float in sound spheres on horizons embellished by lines of synths to the sibylline aromas and with Floydian floating harmonies. The chuckles of rattlers watch over ambiences tinted of aquatic pulsations while the rhythm takes back the skin and the funky charms of Towards the Destiny for a very last one lap where a brief moment of ambient wandering precedes the very last rhythmic merry-go-round which encloses the 6 chapters of “The Stratomusica Suite” which aims to be a very beautiful album of cosmic rock as progressive as electronic.Sylvain Lupari (July 24th, 2014)

mardi 22 juillet 2014

“Claudio Merlini quits here the soft paths of a New Age and its thousand musical embraces to undertake a more audacious sonic journey with pompous Vangelis' orchestrations and strong electronic rhythms”

1 Fireworks 6:17 2 The Unknown Path 6:15 3 Chain Reaction 6:114 Calling Nature Part I 6:57 5 Transformation 6:11 6 Drawing the Sphere 6:587 Calling Nature Part II 6:42 8 The Spinning Wheel 6:019 Adam and Eve 7:49AD119CD (CD 59:21) ***½ (A mix of New Age and rhythmic EM with a zest of filmic moods)In its press guide, AD Music states that the evolution of Claudio Merlini who, since The Colours of Music in 2010, progresses at full speed to reach a surprising maturity in his music structures. I have to admit that this last album amazes. With “Forever Changes” Claudio Merlini quits the soft paths of a New Age and its thousand musical embraces in order to undertake a more audacious sonic journey with an excellent production and pompous Vangelis' orchestrations which cross strong electronic rhythms with structures which throw a sweet sensation of déjà-entendu in the ears. Certainly he always manage to leave some room to these sweet dreamy melodies, I think in particular of "Calling Nature", both parts, and "Adam and Eve" and their very seraphic airs of Fountain of Youth that we found plenty on The Colours of Music and on Enchantment. Except that the Italian composer and synthesist dares and gets out quite slowly of his cocoon to offer us a more audacious album which is undoubtedly his best to date.And it begins with "Fireworks" and its structure of rhythm which gallops like a solitary rider on the plains of harmonies. The essence of “Forever Changes” is all over here with a superb gradation, both in the rhythm and the harmonies. Airs of legions and cavalry, whistled by a sharpened flute and/or clarions, very beautiful orchestrations, as fluid as jerky, which moan into slow waltzing strata, and percussions as symphonic as electronic are structuring a strong title which amazes due to its thick cloud of organic tones that will follow our ears all along the route of this last Claudio Merlini's album. Let's say that it kicks things out well and that the imprints of Vangelis are lying all around. "The Unknown Path" is less on fire and pulls us towards a more melodious approach with a sneaky structure of rhythm and a dreamy melody which reminds me vaguely that of Tangerine Dreamin the Tyranny of Beauty years. This resemblance with the style of Tangerine Dream, mostly the Jerome Froeseyears, is even more convincing with the structure of percussions which embroider the static rhythm of "Chain Reaction". Moreover the rather serene ambiences, the flute, the flock of evanescent harmonies, the breezes of synth a bit philharmonic and the dramatic effects seem to be all familiar elements to us. Beautiful and delicate with a sober pattern sound of twinkling sequences and its soft ethereal flute of which the airs whistle on the harmonies of a dreamy piano, "Calling Nature Part I", as well as its 2nd part, leads us a little closer towards the dreamy ambiences of New Age and Easy Listening which overhung the first two albums of Merlini. After a very philharmonic pompous opening, where swirls a sweet carousel submerged by organic tones, "Transformation" sneaks through thousand essences to finally set ablaze a strange and fascinating mixture of hip-hop and funk. The rhythm becomes at the same moment brusque and fluid with a wave-like bass line and good clanic percussions. Beautiful envelopes of violin enclose this splendid sonic madness, which a sweet melody, a kind of ear-worm to become, sung by a very harmonious piano, ennobles of an ethereal sweetness and forges the furrows for a bewitching tearful violin. Very good! Less hard-hitting and especially less adventurous, "Drawing the Sphere" kisses this configuration of macédoine of styles with a tribal approach which sits on a very electronic rhythm strongly encircled by good arrangements and a beautiful line of flute with songs as angelic as these choirs which hum in the circular melodies of a piano a bit more voracious. The imprint of Vangelis and of Jerome Froese's electronic percussions is rather evident. The strength of this track is necessarily its 7 minutes, because the more it plays the more we find it good. "The Spinning Wheel" offers a strong structure with arpeggios which ring with hesitance in an opening tinted of organic tones. A line of sequences shakes furiously its keys which flutter such as enraged knocks of scissors in emptiness. Alternating its sweet ethereal melody into violent movements of circular rhythms, "The Spinning Wheel" takes refuge under dense Babylonian orchestrations and a pattern of Gregorian voices. There is a great passage of electronic percussions which cut into pieces a sneaky rhythmic phase which reminds me vaguely the first albums of Yanni. Idem with "Adam and Eve" which is a beautiful melodious ballad fed by a dreamy piano and by some seraphic voices.“Forever Changes” has all what it needs to continue to charm the fans of Claudio Merlini while seducing a lot of others. It's a rather cinematographic album with very Arabian sonic essences. Sharply more audacious than on these two first albums at AD Music, Claudio Merlini succeeds all the same to keep this touch printed by romance and reverie which had so much seduced on The Colours of Music or yet Enchantment. This is quite beautiful, very melodious and it breathes of Vangelis, a bit of Yanni, on rhythms and electronic percussions a laTangerine Dream. A good EM cocktail but a single signature; that of Claudio Merlini!Sylvain Lupari (July 21st, 2014)

dimanche 20 juillet 2014

“Perception Totémiste is a rather difficult musical experiment which has the half of Perception Analogique's charms”

1 Dave's Near Vana 7:402 Indescente au Paradis 9:363 Le Sombre Héros Espagnol 10:424 Opuys de Montreuil 8:385 Rue Sale Hazard 7:506 Un des Nababs Revends son Éléphant 9:40PWM-Distrib(CD 54:13) *** (Experimental)Am I dreaming or do I hear the helices of a helicopter, or an enormous ventilator, chopped the too robotics voice of Dave (2001: A Space Odyssey) which filters through ethereal synth pads and noises of a water which drips in a metallic envelope? Am I still dreaming when I hear these distant industrial sirens a laBlade Runner infected the quiet sonic hallucinations of "Dave's Near Vana"? “Perception Totémiste” is the 2nd part on the concept of perception that Pierre-Jean Lievaux has began in 2009.Sharply less audacious, and especially less charming than Perception Analogique, set apart some minutes stolen at the meter here and there, “Perception Totémiste” is a dying electronic symphony where the synth pads and layers are flying slowly, coiling some lengthened timeless and unfinished loops, over a swarm of voices and rustles as cybernetic as ectoplasmic. Rustles and voices which irritate more that they fascinate and which had nevertheless their places in the first part of this quadrilogy. I imagine that it's all a question of perceptions and sound environments. Because what had made the charms of Perception Analogique are cruelly more difficult to assimilate on “Perception Totémiste”, so much everything seems and sounds cold. So much everything seems to be devoid of passion. The ambiences are forged in lines of synth to the shrill colours which set ablaze a multitude of radioactive cracklings of which the imprints carve a sense of perplexity in the ears. I have to admit that there are rather difficult phases such as "Un des Nababs Revends son Éléphant" that I am always incapable to describe. But there are well some fine line of bass which structure some slow, but very slow, wave-like tempos, as on "Dave's Near Vana", or the rather lascivious one of "Indescente au Paradis", where, if we listen closely, we can hear a dark melody sparkling in twilights tinted of metal silk, or yet the somber wandering nomad and enigmatic "Rue Sale Hazard" and its cracklings which glitter on a line of bass at the agony. There is nothing to say about "Le Sombre Héros Espagnol", if it's not that the somber hero looks for his shadow in a rather ethereal tumult with groans which are quavering among scattered clicks. Although quieter, it would have had its place on Perception Analogique. Crackling which drum in void, and of which the echoes pierce the skin of some long drones and hummings, are opening the first seconds of "Opuys de Montreuil" which rocks its structure between an aboriginal clanic approach and a cosmic vision. Bit by bit the tumult changes of skin while the title is switching into a rather ambient phase where faded voices and dissonant harmonies draw a sonic pattern too much abstracted in my ears to find an interest here.You have understood that I found the experience of “Perception Totémiste” rather difficult, even indigestible, by moments. I did not find this small spark that had literally set ablaze my interest for the first part of this quadrilogy. If the structures are a lot alike, it misses this little something there which had made all the difference on Perception Analogique. An unexpected rhythm, a sudden musicality and fragments of melodies buried here and there are totally absent in this 2nd segment which is completely dedicated to the sound experiment and the fruits of its dissonance. For lovers of totally abstracted music!Here is a link for a short video of Le Sombre Héros Espagnol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jwjOq1fv1gSylvain Lupari (July 19th, 2014)

samedi 19 juillet 2014

“Completely remarkable in its genre; Perception Analogique is the typical example of an album that makes us tuck up the ears while we did not even cross the third part of its dial”

1 A Lucie Nogènes 8:522 Les Sens de la Citronnelle 5:043 Là, Derrière les Mûres 8:164 Oh, Pulsage Sage 5:105 Chanvrie Sunday 5:566 Plaztik Désoeuvré 5:587 Sous les Chalets, il Neige 16:208 Cry Babychurch 4:22PWM-Distrib(CD 60:00) ***½(Experimental)I don't like to talk about something that I don't like. I find this prejudicial for the artist, the writer or the film-maker. In fact, it's not because I don't like it that it is not inevitably good! And nevertheless I am going to speak to you about Pierre-Jean Lievaux! By respect for Olivier Briand, a chap that I like, and for the Patch Work Music association, which makes enormous efforts to make the French EM known, and no matter the genres outside its borders. Therefore I am going to talk, for a few lines, about this writer, film-maker at his hours, and experimentalist musician who signed a sonic quadrilogy about the concept of the perception where the dissonance and the cacophony express themselves much better than Kate Bush in her most beautiful ethereal ballads.“Perception Analogique” is an invitation from Pierre-Jean Lievaux to take the shuttle for THE endless journey. And at times, I so wished that this end was near."A Lucie Nogènes" starts things up with an immersive wave filled of prismic particles and of parallel voices. We hear a strange aquatic vocabulary gurgling hoarse psalms while synth waves, with tones as supernatural as cosmic, glide over a structure which fills, as the seconds flee, its 9 minutes with scattered beatings and hollow breaths. The streaks and the cosmic dialects, as well as the lunar orchestrations, remind me a little of these moments from Jean Michel Jarre's interstellar moods. It's not really bad, but it's really necessary to put yourself into it to appreciate the slightest bit of it. And you will have to do this all over the 60 minutes that last “Perception Analogique”. Let's take "Les Sens de la Citronnelle"! At first glimpse we don't notice this fine intrusive melody which swirls like a dream. We only hear these breaths filled of white noises, of gongs and of always scattered carillons. All this with some noises of rattlers, pantings and hollow winds. And nevertheless …"Là, Derrière les Mûres" is a blaring ambient phase where noises, drones and carillons feed the escape. I was no longer able to hear more. Even if its second half offers a purer side with breaths of flutes and Tibetan wind instruments which irritate the kicks of millipedes. It's an obligated passage if we want to discover the surprising "Oh, Pulsage Sage" which is a superb and very psychedelic down-tempo with good percussions and a throbbing line of bass which hammer a slow tempo of which the strong measures knock out an always fascinating fauna as organic as inorganic. This is a big surprise that we don't expect, that we don't even hope for. Less violent, "Chanvrie Sunday" is at the sound image of "Là, Derrière les Mûres". "Plaztik Désoeuvré" is an ambient track with blades of synth which criss-cross and weave a very tight sound mosaic, there where sings a solitary flute and crackle the thousands of insects' footsteps. This is on the verge of being bearable, while the first seconds of "Sous les Chalets, il Neige" are simply not. Still there it is necessary to persevere if we want to hear this delicious choir pierced this thick wall of shrill tones. The effect becomes then surrealist. We wonder on which album, on which music of Pierre-Jean Lievaux we have fell. Certainly the white noises persist. We even hear a strange derailment of organic tones, as well as some singings of allegorical birds. And surprise; everything is more harmonious, even the lapping of water which make us frown just at knowing that we are suppose to be in winter. The whole thing, and especially the laughter that come from all sides in a comic sheath of macaques, bring me closer to the psychedelic madness of Pink Floyd. There are always these voices which whisper the incomprehensibility, which sing the worship for the dissonance and these flutes to the singings so sibylline which transpire all the angelic cacophony of this piece of music that would have made a great hit in the psychedelic years. And following an American political speech, a totally off-the-wall rhythm leads the last minutes of "Sous les Chalets, il Neige" to the edges of a native clanic trance which amazes as much as enchants in this universe always full of surprises, of discoveries. And it's doubtless the biggest magnetism of “Perception Analogique”. From the unexpected where Aphrodite's Child, Pink Floyd and Vangeliscross their bacchanalia symphonies into a mishmash where the delight persists behind every crash, behind every incongruity. "Cry Babychurch" continues in this vein of sonic debauchery that is the second portion of "Sous les Chalets, il Neige". This is totally crazy but we end up to find that good! Even that we find a very beautiful ethereal melody there which paints a halo over this noise all the same rather lively.I don't like to talk about something I don't like! Especially when I eventually end by liking it. “Perception Analogique” is the typical example of an album that makes us tuck up the ears while we did not even cross the third part of its dial. By respect for my friends at Patch Work Music, I had to persist and I eventually found an album as fascinating as interesting where the noises and the tumult homogenize in order to develop some charms outside conventions. We have to give credit to Pierre-Jean Lievaux who, brick by brick, manages to built a wall of abstracted that makes bloom a music which transcends the antennas of our perception into a symphony of sounds all the same rather attractive. Delirious, delicious and completely remarkable in its genre!Sylvain Lupari (July 18th, 2014)

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Qui suis-je

Bonjour!
My name is Sylvain Lupari from Joliette in Quebec (Canada). I’m known as Phaedream all over the Internet since the beginning of 2000 where I started to write reviews. In 2005, I joined the French Webzine Guts of Darkness and on August 2010 I created a Blog, Synth & Sequences, which has reached the point of 1 000,000 visitors on February 2017 where I also wrote my 1354th review. In French and in English, I wrote more than reviews of EM albums.
This Blog is a huge success and reference about the music which sets my mind free over the years. Too many chronicles, so I have to split this Blog in several sections. Robert Schroeder is the first to welcome my thoughts on Webpress.
So, welcome to this part of my Blog Synth&Sequences which is devoted to the music, the tones and sounds of Aachen’s own Robert Schroeder.
Here you will find informations about his career and discography and latest news as well as deep reviews about his music, his albums.
My only wish is to guide you through his impressive career and may I suggest to visit regularly my Blog Synth & Sequences for more updates on EM.